Of Swords and Parasols

Hrm. So. You know, as an independent book, this actually isn’t a bad book, and is even pretty good. The problem is when you remember that it’s supposed to be the conclusion of the story begun in The Darkangel and A Gathering of Gargoyles. It’s not just the storyline and conclusion. The writing style feels completely different, the world isn’t nearly as distinctive, and the way the plot plays out are all radically different from the first two books. I can’t help but think that, had the book ended two chapters earlier, it would have been a much more satisfying ending. Still not nearly as good as the first two, but a decent ending. As it is, there’s nothing before it to indicate that the series will have the kind of ending it had, and nothing in the story to indicate that it has to end that way, and an ending like that needs some serious plot justification. It’s not enough to retroactively ruin the first two books for me, or to make me swear off other books by Pierce, but I’m glad I didn’t wait years for it.

I have to say, though, that within the first 100 pages, my feelings for Irrylath went from disinterest and mild annoyance to outright dislike. I have to wonder if Pierce was actually trying to make us hate him.

So, has anyone read Pierce’s other trilogy, or other books, and am I likely to like it/them? For a quick guideline of what I have liked in The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood: I like Aeriel and Hannah, of course (no point in reading the books if you don’t) I like the quest aspect, the travelling, the way the books seem to incorporate tons of little bits of mythology instead of relying on a sole mythtype, the magic as it relates to the heroines, the distinctive worlds, the talking animals, all the supporting characters they meet in their travels, and the mytharcs of both. I’m not, though, very impressed with her male leads so far. I don’t care for Irrylath(he had potential in the first book, but he wasted it and I thought he was thoroughly unlikable and unsympathetic by the end), and while Hannah’s prince was pretty decent and I have no problems seeing them together and happy for a long time, he wasn’t really developed at all.

After the events of the first book, Aeriel and Irrylath return to his homeland, where he’s reunited with his mother and meets his six younger half-brothers. You’d think Irrylath would be happy about this, but he’s busy moping. It’s a good thing I’m not reading for either him or the romance. I think his father’s genetics are a bad influence on him, as his mother and younger brothers all seem pretty cool.

While Irrylath is moping, Aeriel is busy trying to put together the pieces of Ravenna’s riddle so she can beat the White Witch, and realizes that Irrylath and his brothers are the seven warriors meant to go against the white witch, and that Ravenna’s lons are the steeds they’re meant to ride. Except that six of the lons are missing, so off she goes to find them.

I liked the first book a lot, but I really, really liked this one.  I really like the quest aspect that’s been in all of Pierce’s books so far, and how chunks of them feel like myth-building travelogues. If possible, the second book in the trilogy had even more bits of various myths I can’t quite pin down the origins of, and it makes me really wish I knew more about the significance of numbers in mythologies, as there are a lot of significant numbers here(24, 7, 13, 6, and 14 are the ones that come up the most) that seem to have a significance beyond the one I’m catching.

Then there’re the supporting characters. The gargoyles and the talking animals and the blue juggler and her silent boyfriend and Erin, the slave girl who becomes Aeriel’s traveling companion, and Roshka, the prince who joins them and all these others I feel like I’m forgetting. The revelation of what happened to the lons, as well as that of Airiel’s origins, were pretty obvious early on, but I don’t care because there’s all the mythology and the month long days and the wraiths and the sea of sand…as you can tell, I really to like this world and mytharc. The only problem is Irrylath. Even the characters who only show up for a bit are interesting and well developed, but Irrylath is really just there and now too wrapped up in his own issues, and I remain completely unsold on the romance. I did like the revelation that he’d been looking for Aeriel all the months she was looking for the lons, as well as his finally explaining why he’s so cold to her, but neither really goes very far. Really, I can’t help but wonder if Aeriel is just mistaking pity for something else.

And now, even though I suspect I may regret it, I shall bulldoze ahead and read the third book. 

The Darkangel is the first part of a trilogy(is this YA?  The publisher, and the listing of recommended books in the other two seems to indicate that, but the story really doesn't feel it to me.  But then, I haven't read a lot of YA yet.  Anyway...) about Aeriel, a servant girl who lives in a desert land.  When Eoduin, Aeriel's friend and master, is taken by the Darkangel who terrorizes their land, Aeriel sets out to get her back, both out of friendship, and because she knows that only punishment and eventually being sold off are all that await her with Eoduin's family now.  Aeriel is captured by the Darkangel herself, however, and becomes a servant in his household.  There, she learns the Eoduin became the thirteenth wife of the Darkangel and has become a soulless wraith who is a madwoman and little more than skin and bones, and indistinguishable from the other twelve wives.  Further, she learns that when the Darkangel takes a fourteenth wife in another year, his mother will make him into one of the seven vampyre lords who will take over the world, and Aeriel escapes his palace with the help of the duarough, a dwarven mage who lives under the castle, and sets off on a quest to free him and the wraith wives.

The be honest, if Aeriel's chief goal had been to save Irrylath, the Darkangel, I doubt I could have supported the book.  Instead, saving Irrylath is a necessity if she wants to save the wraith wives, hoping that Eoduin really is one of them, and still alive, and saving them is her main goal.  While she's drawn to Irrylath, it's made clear that it's a mixture of pity and his supernatural abilities, not out of some deep lust for his being a hot vampire, and she hates herself for it.  Irrylath, meanwhile, is thankfully not some goth emoboy angsting for his lost soul.  He doesn't even know why anyone would want one, save for power.  Instead, he really is a monster, one with shreds of humanity, but more a mad creature to be pitied but feared than a romantic figure.  In a lot of ways, he's more of a petty, spoiled, evil child than anything else.  To be completely honest, I'm not convinced yet that he's worth all the trouble Aeriel is going through for him, but I'm willing to be convinced.

Pierce also brings in a lot of various mythologies.  While the world as a whole has something of a middle-eastern feel to it, there are also definite European feel to the mytharc, and various plotpoints seem to be drawn from specific fables of both.  I'm not sure what I think of Irrylath or the romance yet, but I do like Aeriel, and the mytharc that's developing, and how the resolution of one quest resulted in another, bigger quest emerging.